Not that a party split between these two offices has ever happened in U.S. history, but I think it'd be a kick if it did someday. Think it's difficult to get anything done in Washington, D.C. when you have a Democratic President and a RepublicanCongress? How about if you had a Republican President and a Democratic Veep?

This is a VERY important power. Whatever your opinion of OBRA 93 (and opinions vary--widely), there's no doubt that it would not have passed in its then-current form without a little Vice-Presidential nudge.

It was built for the Superintendant of the US Naval Observatory in 1893. In 1929 it became the home of the U.S. Navy's Chief of Naval Operations. Then in 1974 it was designated the official home of the Vice President of the United States, and every VP since that time has lived there. I've driven past it, and it's a pretty unassuming place (albeit large, with a sizeable fenced-in lawn/compound) given that the Vice President lives there -- just a big driveway with a "Naval Observatory" sign.

There are pictures of it, along with some explanatory text (from which I purloined all of the actual facts above) at http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/EOP/VP_Wife/home.html, which is an "At Home With the Gores" page. Be warned that the rest of it is a bit much:

Auxiliary president. The vice-president is the stand in for the president for a particular purpose. It looks like between 1992 and 2000, Albert Gore was vice-president of the United States, which officially puts his duties somewhere around thumb twiddling, but in case somebody should have assassinated president William Clinton, Mr. Gore would have defaulted to the presidency, effectively making him the most powerful man in the world.

The vice-president is a contingency plan, but in some cases (such as 2000-2004) may not prove to be very reliable. It seems as though Dick Cheney, who is probably the next United States vice-president, has a heart problem. If it kills him before his term is up, then that's a contingency plan that hasn't seen all possible contingencies.

Also, SatireWire once referred to the PresiRAT, which apparently refers to a U.S. President who is a DemocRAT. This begs the question: Is there a vice-presiRAT for those occasions when something dreadful should happen to the current presiRAT?